A €300m ($267m) bond issue from France Télécom is at the centre of a row among debt syndicates, highlighting how keen banks are to underwrite an expected €5bn deal from the French telecom operator.

Rival banking sources, who declined to be named, have claimed that Lehman Brothers agreed to underwrite the €300m bond issue at a loss. They said that Lehman bought the bonds from France Télécom at a margin of 36 basis points over Euribor (the euro's interbank borrowing rate) and sold the bonds at a higher margin of Euribor plus 43 bps.